Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Blog Post

In a comment last week, Nick Messenger asked me about this figure and how I write. I gave you a little bit of insight into this process in How to Write a Legendary Blog Post, but I haven’t given you the exact order in which I do things.

So, here it is. For every blog post I write, I go through these five steps. As a result, Google sends me tens of thousands of people every month.

Step 1: Researching (1 Hour)

Start with a topic. For instance, the topic of this post is, “blog post writing process.”

Then, before I write a single word, I do about an hour of research:

Conduct Keyword Research

Once you have a topic, focus on nailing it down into a high search, low competition keyword. I use Ahrefs for this.

Take the topic and turn it into a keyword. You want the post to rank for the keyword that people actually use, instead of your best guess. Also, find a low competition keyword so you have a better chance of ranking for it.

Ahrefs will give you the search volume and how many backlinks you will likely need to rank for a keyword.

It will also give you keyword ideas, such as similar topics, longtail keywords that include your original keyword and other search terms from posts that rank for that keyword.

When I started researching this post, I checked “blog post blueprint,” “how to write a blog post,” and “steps blog post.” Through that, I found that “writing a blog post” is another popular keyword for this topic.

Research the Keyword

Once you have a few good keywords, look at the websites that rank for them.

To see the actual results.
It’s good to see the headlines and metadata for the posts that sit on the front page so you can improve upon them.

To read what others have written.
Your goal with a blog post is to create an ultimate resource for that longtail keyword. The best way to incorporate various viewpoints on your topic is to draw inspiration from what other people have already written. If I use someone’s exact thought, I’ll link to it like I did in this post.

After Googling the four keywords for this post and reading through a few of the articles (most of them weren’t very good), I decided on my primary and secondary keywords for this post.

Step 3: Writing (3 Hours)

Out of the six hours that it takes me to create a blog post, I only spend half of it writing.

Reel Them in With the Introduction

After the headline, your introduction is the most important part of the post.

If you do a good job of capturing their attention and emphasizing the importance of reading the post, they’ll keep reading. If you don’t, they won’t.

In this post, I emphasized the importance of reading it by ending the introduction with the benefits of following this process, “tens of thousands of people every month.”

Fill Out the Subhead Sections

By writing the subheads first, writing the article becomes as simple as filling out a form with explanatory content under each subhead.

When rounding out the subhead sections, I try to include an image, a blockquote, or a list to make each section more scannable.

Wrap it Up with a Conclusion

The purpose of the conclusion is three-fold:

To re-emphasize the main points of the post.
What do you want them to remember? How do you want them to feel?

To tie back in with the introduction.
If you dropped something creative into the introduction, bring the post full circle by mentioning it again.

To get them to take action.
I’m convinced that the best call to action is to get your reader to implement your advice. So end the post with a little ditty that’ll motivate them to do so (e.g see “The Final Word” ).

Edit for Content

At this point, read through the whole article to grasp the big picture view of the content. Make sure that it effectively communicates the message that you want your reader to take away.

You’ll edit for grammar and sentence structure later.

Step 4: Posting (30 Minutes)

Now that you’ve written the post, preferably in Word, upload it to your site in the Add Post area.

Tags
Add tags to link to previous posts on your blog that discuss similar topics.

Excerpt
If you use excerpts in your theme, make sure you drop that in. I like to use my meta description as my excerpt.

Custom Fields
If you have custom fields built into your theme, include those.

Step 5: Editing and Accessorizing (1 Hour)

Now that you have the post on your site, we start the editing and accessorizing step:

Edit for Grammar
Click Preview to edit the post as you’ll see it on your site. For this editing phase, focus on grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and syntax issues.

Find a Post Image
Use Compfight.com to search through the Creative Commons section of Flickr. Find a photo you like, make sure you’re not violating any of its copyright rules, use it in your post, and attribute it back to the creator. If it’s your feature image, set it as your feature image.

Create the Supplementary ImagesIn Step 1, I included a supplementary screenshot of the Google Keyword results for my initial keywords. I create those images at this point and upload them into the post.

Link Internally and Externally
Link to two or three previous posts because it’s good for internal SEO and for keeping people on your site. Then, if I feel like the reader will benefit from someone else’s resource or tool (like Compfight), I’ll link to those.

Make Final Edits
Edit the post one last time with all of the images included.

The Final Word

I understand that this is an extensive, time-consuming process that you might not want to go through.

I can tell you, however, that I’ve gone through this exact process for nearly every blog post I’ve written in the last three years. As a result, Google sends 20,000+ people per month to my sites (not including my Income Diary posts).

So, instead of pumping out 10-15 measly 1-hour blog posts per month that hardly get any traffic, spend a little more time writing 2-3 solid ones.

Hi Nick, I had no idea it takes so long to write a post. I always thought it takes something between 30 -60 minutes and no longer. Now knowing how much time You have to spend writing one post , my best regards to you. Apparently nothing in life is easy – particularly not writing a blog post.
Best wishes,
Teresa.

Nicholas, got to tell it as it is,
This was THE VERY BEST, MOST INFORMATIVE BLOG POST I HAVE EVER READ.
In fact, to be honest, it is the first and only blog post I have ever read from beginning to end.

Hi King, I used to just write write write and love the feeling of just writing and trusting someone will read/be attracted to my words..but in terms of growing my business but these days, i am seeing the value of using the tools available to ensure what I write is relevant and useful to my audience. Having a plan and structure isnt my natural way of being, yet the more structured and focused I become, the more clarity and room to be creative there seems to be! Strange uh?

This is excellent content Nicholas. I love the idea of starting a blog and your guides provide real value and a confidence boost. Easy to read and follow and pure, solid, practical advice. You and the guys at Income Diary are beacons of light to us newbies. Thank you.

Quick question – how confident can you be to rank for the longtail keywords you have chosen if you implement all the SEO strategies mentioned?

It depends on a number of factors, Jamie. Income Diary is a fairly authoritative site. So ranking for long-tail keywords isn’t too hard. Since I’ve been testing these strategies for three years, I can get a good idea of how well it’ll rank before I write it. If you do everything, you have a good chance even if your site is new.

It’s comforting and justifies the time I take each week to post my blogs…especially when people wonder why I’m doing it…as far as I’m concerned, each blog is my resume, a representation of who I am and what I do. It’s important to me to get it right.

Hey Hashim, you’re right that those are for advertisers. It’s not perfect, but it’s fairly representative of the organic keywords as well. That’s why I always google the keywords to see the actual results.

Thanks Nick..appreciate the guidance and formula..I will try it next week. It takes me forever to write a blog post and I dont get much traffic..so I’ll read and apply your steps and see how it all goes. Thanks. Roll on next week.

Amazing, Nicolas, I have spent over an hr keywording “Yoga for beginners”..I was totally shocked to discover “what is hatha yoga?” and “types of yoga” and “yoga exercises” are all low competition words and have high search volume figures 165,00-301,000.

As a yoga teacher, I never thought so many people would be searching for the words “what is yoga?”. I take it for granted that “everyone” knows what yoga is about (ouch!!) so that has been an eye-opener. So based on that, would you recommend articles using keywords “what is yoga?”.

My key audience is working women. So tomorrow I shall research “working women” and see what comes up and see what combinations of words I can best use for women and yoga. Great fun and thanks.

Nicolas,
This is what I’d call a Posting Framework, which is what I’ve developed for my articles too, but in a different way.
Many people just open their CMS and start writing what they want. Research is extremely important even if you already know about your topic.
However, I normally set the headers and images so I have an Sketch and start writing, and my whole methodology takes 2-3 hours.

I used to write 40-100 pages articles before, and that took me around 2 weeks, and that’s the reason I developed my Framework.
Thank you for this information.
Take care.

Yes, but because I used to review PC and electronics products, so I included images, tables, photos, charts and even videos sometimes. 40 pages in Word Doc, of course. When published, they could take between 10-20 pages in the website.
Example:

Thank you Nochilas, but even that, I’ve got much to learn here at IncomeDiary.
Before, we only focused on content, research and images (6 years). Things like SEO, keyword research and others were not in our radar. Thanks for this useful post.
While I developed my own framework, most of our reviewers didn’t get how to start writing, and I committed the big mistake of not sharing my own as I thought it was basic and obvious. I’m still learning yet.

Thanks, Nicholas for this informative article. I had no idea it took so long. I thought a pillar article would take 3 hours and a normal around an hour.
However, as usual a great insight into a master article writer

Hey Nick, perhaps those will be answered in blog posts down the road ;). To answer briefly, I brainstorm a list of topics that I think people would be interested in and where I feel comfortable giving advice about. I’m working on developing an editorial calendar, just like you asked. I don’t like hot, trendy topics. The traffic doesn’t last. Every post I write is written specifically for the audience where I know it’s going to be posted. I know where it’s going before I write it. For promoting it, you should read this post: https://www.incomediary.com/10-blog-post-marketing-steps-to-take-immediately-after-you-publish

Hey Edoardo, take your primary keyword and put it at the front of the title, in the meta description, first meta keyword, as the permalink slug, 2-5% of the text in your post, and in your subheads, if it’s natural. Read this post for more info: https://www.incomediary.com/seo-blog-post-publishing-steps

Hey Abigail, I used to do that too. If you’re fairly certain you’re writing about a good keyword, you can skip that step. But I encourage you to spend at least a few minutes on keyword research. The posts that I put a bunch of keyword research into get 10-100 times more search traffic than the ones that I didn’t research at all.

And all this time I thought I was taking too long to write a post. You have now given me the knowledge that I am on the right track. Although some of my times in each area are a little different, in the end the total still comes out about the same. Thanks again.

Currently anywhere between 4.5 to 6 hours. I know that as I get more experience that will probably get better but for now that’s the best I can do. The only difference I do is swap your first 2 steps. Usually after dealing with a problem and then solving it, I try to provide a post about how others might solve the same issue. Other times I look for what is buzzing in my niche’s community and maybe catch some of the hype.

Useful post! All information is helpful except one 🙂
“I chose not to write for, “how to write a blog post” because, despite the Keyword Tool listing it as low competition,” << The competition bar in Google Keyword Tool shows the adword competition, not serp competition.
You see "low" because just a few people bid for that keyword 🙂

I too take around 6 hours to write most of my posts. Video posts are a little shorter.

Researching is essential even if you know your subject, there is always something extra to learn or something you may have missed. It’s better to be sure.

I also create mind maps for my content structure, this saves me a ton of time.

I had to laugh, when you spoke about accessorizing. Last week it took me an hour to find an image. An hour! I was pulling my hair out in the end trying to find the best image for my post. This is not the first time either.

Everyday I try to think of new ways to help improve my blog experience and this post has really knocked it out of the park for me. This has given me a lot of great ideas to implement and even double check to see if I’m an offender. Speed a bit factor so I need to figure that out.

Good post.. Its very inspiring of you to listen to your readers and creating a post requested by a reader.
This is one of the most important part of blogging, listen, care and deliver. Its called ‘Being Human’. This blog post has surely inspired lot many readers to express their true feeling and views freely as they are being heard on this website.

Hey Nahid, it’s as simple as going there and checking the keywords you’re thinking about writing about. As Tung Tran pointed about above, the Keyword Tool is a little misleading because it gives competition results based on advertising competitiveness. He mentioned that Market Samurai is a better tool for organic listings.

It’s no wonder I can’t write quality posts. How do you think a part time internet marketer could translate your 6 hour timeframe into the small number of hours in each day? I’d dearly like to have a post a day, but there aren’t 6 hours spare after working, commuting, feeding, clothing and bathing the family, cleaning the house and the like. Oh and I forgot sleeping…. Maybe I could re-think the need for a “daily” post. I guess it’s quality that counts (and consistency). Thanks for a great post.

Wow. This is so helpful! But my post initiation process has always been from an idea in my head or a burden I want to express, not from keyword researches. I want to write for humans instead of Google codes.

I guess I should find a way to integrate them both that will not compromise the weight of my message. Thanks!

That’s good that you want to appeal to people first and foremost, HT. Google, however, has more data than anything else in the world as far as what people are interested in and searching for. When you’re doing keyword research, it’s not as though you’re preparing to write for search engines. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

Hi HT…it is possible to integrate the two and still be true to self. I am finding as long as you know your subject area using keyword research gives you so much more room for flexibility. I know my subject area and am always amazed when I do keyword research what people are searching for. Sometimes you can be to oclose to your subject and not see where others are coming from?

Very observant, Kerwin :). I originally titled this post, A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Traffic-Nabbing Blog Post. After the feedback from the comments about how extensive the post is, I decided it would be appropriate to title it, Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Blog Post. It’s fine to change the post title, but don’t mess with the permalink slug because you lose social counts when you do that.

Correct. Copyblogger does this all the time. They publish it with a headline that’ll appeal to their subscribers (because it’s the subject line). Then a day or so later they’ll change it to something a bit more SEO-friendly. If you google this post you’ll see that they updated the title tag since I originally changed it. As long as you leave the URL the same, you’re good.

Nicholas,just a quickie re keyword tool. What exactly does it mean by “low competition” and what sort of range is good for global search terms? for instance, I don’t want to get too hung up on this, but the term What is Inner peace? has 60,500 views whereas Finding Inner Peace has 4,400. so in terms of seo it is better to use Finding inner peace as a title?

Hey Ntathu, the Low competition is based on paid search for that term. I’d say “Finding Inner Peace” should be your main keyword. If it does well, the post will start to climb for the keyword, “Inner Peace.”